North Carolina 74, Notre Dame 73: Great game, foul ending

Markus Burton’s return to the lineup gets spoiled by a late-game breakdown

The North Carolina Tar Heels made their way to Purcell Pavilion for a Saturday afternoon matinee, with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish badly needing a win after the disastrous effort in Atlanta. It was announced that Irish star Markus Burton would be available off the bench to make his return from his knee injury, and he was more than up to the challenge in front of a sellout crowd. Notre Dame would put forth an effort befitting the excitement of his comeback, but a late defensive mistake by Matt Allocco would eventually be the difference in the game, as North Carolina emerged victorious after an incredible second half of basketball.

The Irish offense was rocky early, with two turnovers and a missed layup by Julian Roper in the first four possessions, However, the Irish got some offense off of a couple of Tar Heels turnovers. Tae Davis got a difficult and-one after wrestling the ball away from Ian Jackson, and Roper electrified the Purcell Pavilion with a beautiful pick-six on an errant pass.

Braeden Shrewsberry hit a three and a floater and J.R. Konieczny made a corner three to keep the Irish offense moving until Markus Burton checked at the scorer’s table. He got a nice reception from the hometown crowd. Burton promptly slapped away the ball from the Tar Heels and got fouled in transition to make his impact felt immediately.

Unfortunately, while the Irish did a good job of keeping North Carolina off the offensive glass, there were difficulties defending in transition and on back-cuts. Point guard Eliot Cadeau burned sleeping Irish defenders with nice bounce passes, and failure to take care of the basketball led to a couple fast-break layups. Ian Jackson reached double-digit scoring for North Carolina early, and the Irish trailed 26-14 with just over eight minutes to play in the half.

The Irish responded quickly, with Matt Allocco hitting a three and Shrewsberry following in kind with a deep one on the following possession. After seeing Cadeau hit a three in his eyes, Burton responded with a drive and lay-in for his first post-injury points. Feeling it, he drove and put one in off the glass on the ensuing possession to get some rhythm going.

Despite the surge, giveaways were extremely problematic throughout the first half. In addition to errant passes, the Irish got called for traveling three times plus a shot clock violation. Notre Dame came into the game averaging about 10.5 turnovers per game, but committed eight giveaways in the first half.

After North Carolina scored off of Notre Dame’s eighth and final turnover of the half, they led 35-24, but Burton was able to create a little momentum for the Irish down the stretch. He hit a pull-up jumper and then had a pair of nice passes, one to Davis leading to free throws and one to Kebba Njie for an uncharacteristically successful thunder dunk over a defender. The Irish were able to grind the lead down to five before an extremely dumb foul by Julian Roper, pushing a Tar Heel player 35 feet from the hoop, allowed North Carolina to get a couple more before the halftime horn, when they led 39-32.

The Irish weren’t able to make any headway against that lead as the first half began. There were no answers for Ian Jackson, who extended the North Carolina lead to 11 on his 20th and 21st points of the game on a fast-break alley-oop.

However, the tables turned when the Irish put their star back in. Markus Burton put in a nice and-one on R.J. Davis upon his return to the game, Ian Jackson missed a pair of free throws on the other end, and Burton got back to the line off of another drive. After a Drake Powell three rolled around the rim and out, the Irish had some great ball movement that resulted in a Tae Davis drive and dunk.

The run didn’t stop there. Burton put in and and-one again with a crafty move on R.J. Davis, then got back to the line again after Carolina missed a three. That put Notre Dame in the bonus with over 13 minutes left in the half, and Burton made both free throws to give the Irish a lead at 48-47. The Irish run was capped at 12-0 when Micah Shrewsberry pulled Burton to get a breather.

North Carolina started scoring again with a Jackson layup and a Jae’Lyn Withers three, but the Irish responded when Matt Allocco drilled one from deep after some cold shooting and Davis got himself another tough layup under the hoop. The Irish took a 1-point lead into the under-12 timeout, which was triggered by Garrett Sundra’s fourth foul (somehow).

The insane excitement of the second half continued when play resumed. A Shrewsberry transition three was answered by a Withers alley-oop. Burton made a pull up mid-range jumper off the glass, and Jalen Washington answered with a monster dunk for Carolina. The Irish took the lead back on a ridiculous step-back three from Shrewsberry that he shot with confidence despite the degree of difficulty. The score hung at 61-59 Irish at the under-8 timeout.

Tae Davis and Ian Jackson exchanged difficult layups to re-start the action, then both teams went cold for a bit before Jalen Washington committed the tenth Carolina foul to send the Irish into the double-bonus. Powell tied the game with a three on the ensuing possession, but the Tar Heels’ foul issues continued as Burton drew yet another one on a drive, the fourth foul on point guard Cadeau. Two made free throws would give the Irish the lead back, but Ian Jackson’s transition lay-up tied the score, where it would hang until former Irish Ven-Allen Lubin fouled Tae Davis to trigger the under-4 timeout.

Davis would make one of two free throws to reclaim the lead, but R.J. Davis would take it back on an easy drive and lay-in a couple possessions later. Davis reclaimed the Irish advantage with a tough second-effort off of a blocked shot with two minutes left. The crowd was electric as the back-and-forth affair continued. It was unbelievable to watch after the lows of the Georgia Tech first half. Burton extended the lead to three on the next possession when his pull-up jumper rolled in, causing North Carolina to call timeout and the Purcell Pavilion to explode.

North Carolina inbounded the ball with 1:11 left in the game and got the ball to Washington under the hoop, but Julian Roper came up with a huge strip-and-steal to get the Irish possession with under a minute to play and a three-point lead. The Irish drained most of the shot clock, but Burton got the ball stripped off his knee and out of bounds, giving it back to Carolina without a shot attempt. Cadeau took it right at Burton for a layup, putting the lead down to 1 with 21 seconds left. Timeout, Irish.

On the ensuing inbounds, UNC left Allocco open around half-court, and the Tar Heels were forced to foul him with 14.5 remaining on the clock. Allocco made both to push the lead to three, but then made a critical mistake. North Carolina was very committed to attempting a three on the next possession and Cadeau launched a tough step-back. Unfortunately, not only did the rainbow fall through the net, but Allocco interfered with his airspace on the landing and was called for a foul. Cadeau made the free throw to complete the four-point play and give the Tar Heels a 1-point lead with 4.8 seconds to go.

Micah Shrewsberry took a timeout before the final, game-deciding play. Burton took the inbounds pass uncontested and charged the length of the floor in little time. He got all the way to the rim and got bumped by Cadeau on the way up, but not enough to elicit a foul call, and the shot banged off the glass and out. J.R. Konieczny’s put-back attempt was after the horn, and Carolina escaped with the one-point win.

Bullet Points

• Nikita Konstantinovskyi did not play at all, and Logan Imes’ involvement was reduced to a single defensive possession at the end of the first half.
• Burton’s final line was 23 points on 7-of-14 shooting and 9-of-10 from the free throw line.
• The Tar Heels managed only five offensive rebounds against the Irish on the day, which represented a tremendous Notre Dame effort given their struggles earlier in the season on the glass.
• Ian Jackson finished with 27 points, and no one else for North Carolina made it to double-digits until Cadeau made his game-deciding free throw.
• Ven-Allen Lubin did very little in his return to the Purcell Pavilion, scoring just four points off the bench on just one attempted shot for a team that has had frontcourt issues.
• The Carolina starting lineup committed 17 fouls without anyone picking up their fifth.